0th droop detector architecture and implementation

ABSTRACT

A voltage droop detector captures the very high-frequency noise on the power grid of a load, such as a microprocessor. The droop detector includes twin circuits, one of which receives the voltage from the power grid of the load, the other of which receives a filtered voltage. A 0 th  droop, as well as 1 st  droops, 2 nd  droops, and so on, are captured and stored for subsequent analysis. The circuits sample the voltages frequently enough to ensure that all droop events are captured. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to voltage detection circuitry and, moreparticularly, to a circuit and method for detecting a 0^(th) droop in asystem.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Power-based systems are designed to address changes in currentrequirements at the load. A microprocessor load, for example, may changeits current consumption by 50 amps or more in a fraction of ananosecond, or a single cycle. This current spike, or change in currentconsumption (di/dt) causes voltage variations or spikes, known asdroops, on the power supply. A droop is defined as an output voltagechange as a function of time, and may include both under-voltage andover-voltage conditions.

These droops are designated as 0^(th) order, 1^(st) order, 2^(nd) order,and so on, according to their duration. A 0^(th) order voltage droop, or0^(th) droop, manifests itself as a high-frequency noise on the powergrid of the load. The 0^(th) droop is the first droop to manifest in avoltage spike event (as compared to the 1^(st) droop, 2^(nd) droop,etc.), and has a very short duration.

The duration of the 0^(th) droop is so short, in fact, that the 0^(th)droop is undetectable using known technology. The 0^(th) droop has notyet been successfully quantified due to its very high frequency (10 GHzand above) compared to the 1^(st) droop (below 1 GHz). Further, formicroprocessors, the available technology has been unable to accuratelymeasure the 0^(th) droop from outside the chip. The droop component isexpected to be local and the result of a large di/dt, combined with theon-die inductance and capacitance of the power grid.

Analog droop detectors work by amplifying the droop signal so that thesignal has a large enough amplitude to be detectable. The problem withthese droop detectors is that, for a droop event of a very shortduration (a very narrow droop), such as a 0^(th) droop event, theamplifier must have a very high bandwidth in order to sufficientlyamplify the signal for it to be detectable. High-bandwidth amplifiersare very difficult to make. Thus, droop detectors are either very fast,but not very sensitive, or very sensitive, but not very fast. In eithercase, a 0^(th) droop event will be missed.

Because the 0^(th) droop has not been measure with precision, engineershave been unable to ascertain either the amplitude or the quantitativeimpact of a 0^(th) droop event on a microprocessor.

Thus, there is a continuing need for a droop detector that overcomes theshortcomings of the prior art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of thisinvention will become more readily appreciated as the same becomesbetter understood by reference to the following detailed description,when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein likereference numerals refer to like parts throughout the various views,unless otherwise specified.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a voltage droop detection circuit,according to some embodiments;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the 0^(th) droop detector 10 of FIG. 1,according to some embodiments;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the sampler circuit of FIG. 2,according to some embodiments;

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram of the sampler stage 28A of FIG. 3,according to some embodiments;

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of the sampler stage 28B of FIG. 3,according to some embodiments;

FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram of the flip-flop 36 of FIG. 3, according tosome embodiments;

FIG. 7 is a timing diagram showing a 0^(th) droop detection by thecircuit of FIG. 1, according to some embodiments; and

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a system including the voltage droopdetector of FIG. 1, according to some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In accordance with the embodiments described herein, a voltage droopdetector is disclosed for capturing the very high-frequency noise on thepower grid of a load, such as a microprocessor. The droop detectorincludes twin circuits, one of which receives the voltage from the powergrid of the load, the other of which receives a filtered voltage. Adroop detected by the first circuit but not the second circuit, deemedthe 0^(th) droop, as well as 1^(st) droop, 2^(nd) droop, and so on, arecaptured and stored for subsequent analysis. The circuits sample thevoltages frequently enough to ensure capture of the 0^(th) droop event.

The voltage droop detector architecture described herein, in contrast tothe prior art, exploits a semi-synchronous continuous digital samplingtechnique to identify and record 0^(th) droop events. Prior art droopdetectors are generally analog solutions whose speed limitations renderthem incapable of capturing the 0^(th) droop event.

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings, which show by way of illustration specificembodiments in which the invention may be practiced. However, it is tobe understood that other embodiments will become apparent to those ofordinary skill in the art upon reading this disclosure. The followingdetailed description is, therefore, not to be construed in a limitingsense, as the scope of the present invention is defined by the claims.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a voltage droop detector 100, accordingto some embodiments. Two high-speed droop detectors 10, designated α(hereinafter, α droop detector) and β (hereinafter, β droop detector), afilter 14, a combinational logic circuit 18, and a first-in-first-out(FIFO) circuit 12 are shown. The droop detectors 10 are controlled by aclock 16, which may be the clock for the load or another clock. Thefilter 14 is a simple RC filter, comprising a resistor R and a capacitorC. The voltage droop detector 100 is able to identify a 0^(th) droopevent 20A, a 1^(st) droop event 20B, or a non-droop event 20C.

In some embodiments, the a droop detector and the β droop detector areequivalent circuits. As used herein, the term “equivalent circuits” ismeant to describe circuits which functionally operate in a like manner;although equivalent circuits may be designed using different logiccomponents, their behavior during operation is substantially the same.Thus, while the a droop detector and the β droop detector may internallyinclude different components, they function as though they are the samecircuit.

The α droop detector receives a voltage V_(cc), the voltage from thepower grid of the load; the β droop detector receives a voltageV_(filt). The voltage V_(filt) is the result of the filter 14 smoothingout some of the voltage spikes from the power grid voltage V_(cc), inparticular, the 0^(th) droop voltage event. Thus, R and C of the filter14 are selected so as to allow other voltage variations, such as 1^(st)droop, 2^(nd) droop, etc., to pass through to the β droop detector.Hereinafter, the load will be referred to as a microprocessor load,although the principles of the voltage droop detector 100 may be appliedto virtually any load.

In some embodiments, the a droop detector and the β droop detectorcontinuously sample the voltage from the power grid V_(cc) and thefiltered out voltage V_(filt), respectively. Each droop detector 10includes n sampling circuits, described FIG. 2 and succeeding figures,below. The droop detectors 10 thus each produce n outputs, one for eachsampling circuit, which are fed into the optional memory buffer or FIFO12, which stores the outputs of the droop detectors 10 for furtheranalysis. The outputs of the droop detectors 10 include both droopevents and non-droop events. (Where no FIFO 12 is present, thecombinational logic circuit 18 analyzes the droop events as the resultsemerge from the droop detectors.) The combinational logic circuit 18comprises combinational logic for distinguishing the 0^(th) droop event20A, a 1^(st) droop event 20B, or a non-droop event 20C. In someembodiments, the combinational logic circuit 18 monitors the contents ofthe FIFO 12 and interrupts operation of the droop detectors when a droopevent has been detected. System designers of ordinary skill recognize anumber of implementations of the combinational logic circuit 18.

The FIFO 12 receives the sampling information obtained from the α and βdroop detectors. The history around the events 20A, 20B, and 20C may beanalyzed in detail a posteriori. The voltage droop detector 100 actually“detects” the 0^(th) droop event a posteriori to the event. Thus, thedetector 100 has knowledge of the 0^(th) droop event 20A after the eventis completed.

In some embodiments, the information received from the α and β droopdetectors, including both droop events and non-droop events, is fed intothe FIFO 12, which stores a predetermined number of samples. Once adroop event is identified by the combinational logic circuit 18,information continues to be stored in a first-in-first-out fashion untilthe droop event information is stored approximately in the middle of theFIFO (or at any chosen location in the FIFO, from the beginning to theend). This ensures that the FIFO 12 includes stored information thatoccurs prior to the droop event as well as information that occursfollowing the droop event. The voltage droop detector 100 is thenstopped and the contents of the FIFO are transferred to another memory(not shown in FIG. 1) for further analysis. The other memory may beadditional volatile memory, such as a dynamic random access memory(DRAM), non-volatile media, such as a hard disk drive or compact diskread-only memory (CDROM), or other storage device. Once the FIFOcontents are transferred, the FIFO 12 may then be flushed, and thevoltage droop detector 100 may be restarted for sampling the loadvoltage. In other embodiments, the process of transferring the FIFOcontents to another memory may be performed automatically usingsoftware, hardware, or a combination thereof, enabling the voltage droopdetector 100 to obtain sampling information about the load voltagecontinuously.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the 0^(th) droop detector 10 of FIG. 1,according to some embodiments. The droop detector 10 may be either the adroop detector or the β droop detector, which are distinguished by theirinput voltage. The 0^(th) droop detector 10 receives a voltage,designated V_(samp), which is either the power grid voltage V_(cc) (adroop detector) or the filtered voltage V_(filt) (β droop detector). Theclock 16 is used to sample the voltage.

The 0^(th) droop detector 10 includes a row of n samplers, four of whichare designated 30A, 30B, 30C, and 30D (collectively, samplers 30). N−1delay circuits 22A, 22B, and 22C (collectively, delay circuits 22) arealso depicted. The samplers 30 are triggered, one after the other, bythe respective delay circuits 22. The delay circuits 22 include logicfor delaying the clock 16 by a predetermined amount. The delay circuits22 may comprise any of a number of logic elements, known to those ofordinary skill in the art. In some embodiments, the delay circuits 22are equivalent circuits, thus providing equivalent delays betweensamples. The delay circuits 22 ensure that each sampler 30 receives thevoltage V_(samp) at a slightly different moment in time, specified asΔt.

In some embodiments, the sampler circuits 30A, 30B, 30C, and 30D areequivalent circuits. The sampler circuits receive clock inputs clk_(i),where i is the reference number of the sampler. Except for the firstsampler 30A, which receives the voltage V_(samp) according to the clock16, the remaining samplers 30 each receive the voltage V_(samp)according to a different clock input, as specified by dedicated delaycircuits 22. Where the clock 16 input is designated as to (and assumingthe 0^(th) droop detector 10 includes four samplers), sampler 30Areceives the voltage V_(samp) at time t0 (clk_(30A)), sampler 30Breceives the voltage V_(samp) at time t₀+Δt (clk_(30B)), sampler 30Creceives the voltage V_(samp) at time t₀+2Δt (clk_(30C)), and sampler30D receives the voltage V_(samp) at time t₀+3Δt (clk_(30D)). Bysampling the voltage V_(samp) with a short delay Δt, the voltageV_(samp) is continuously observed even when the reference clockcontrolling the samplers (clock 16) is of a lower frequency than thedroop event itself.

The time delay Δt specified by the delay circuits 22 may vary accordingto the frequency of the clock 16, the number of samples to be taken, orother considerations. The length of time it takes for each sampler 30 tocomplete the processing of a single sample is known as its samplingwindow. In some embodiments, the time delay Δt and the sampling windoware equivalent in duration. Keeping the sampling window approximatelyequivalent to the time delay Δt ensures that all events are captured onthe power grid of the load.

Each sampler 30 also receives a voltage V_(ref) as an input. The voltageV_(samp) is compared to the reference voltage V_(ref), and an outputouts is generated, one for each sampler 30. When the voltage V_(samp) isbelow the voltage V_(ref), the sampler 30 knows a droop event hasoccurred.

In some embodiments, digital information is obtained from each 0^(th)droop detector 10 (α and β). By combining the digital informationobtained from the a droop detector 10A, which samples the voltage V_(cc)of the power grid of the load, with the digital information obtainedfrom the β droop detector 10B, which samples the filtered voltageV_(filt) of the power grid, the voltage droop detector 100 is able todiscriminate the very high-speed portion of a voltage droop (0^(th)droop) from a slower voltage droop (1^(st) droop, 2^(nd) droop, etc.)The β droop detector 10B samples out the filtered version of the powergrid, and thus detects lower frequency components of the voltage droop,that is, not 0^(th) droop events. Thus, when both detectors (α and β)detect a droop event, the voltage droop detector 100 knows the event isnot a pure 0^(th) droop event, but a lower frequency droop (1^(st) droopand more). In some embodiments, the 0^(th) droop is identified when thea droop detector, which is directly sampling the power grid of the load,detects a droop. In this manner, the combinational logic 18 of thevoltage droop detector 100 filters the n events from each of the droopdetectors 10 to obtain the 0^(th) droop event.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the sampler circuit 30 of FIG. 2,according to some embodiments. As indicated, above, each of the samplercircuits depicted in FIG. 2 is an equivalent circuit. The representationof FIG. 3 is thus repeated for n sampler circuits in the 0^(th) droopdetector 10 of FIG. 2; since there are two 0^(th) droop detectors 10 inthe voltage droop detector 100 of FIG. 1, the sampler circuit 30 of FIG.3 is thus present 2n times in the voltage droop detector 100.

The sampler 30 includes two circuits, 28A and 28B, the samplingcircuits. An implementation of the sampling circuit 28A is depicted inFIG. 4, while an implementation of the sampling circuit 28B is depictedin FIG. 5, below.

The circuit 28A receives three voltage inputs, V_(dd), V_(in), andV_(ref), two of which are tied together (V_(dd) and V_(in)), as well asclock input clk_(i) which varies according to the relevant samplercircuit (i.e., clk_(30A) for sampler 30A, clk_(30B) for sampler 30B,etc.). The circuit 28A produces two complementary output signals,out_(28A1) and out_(28A2), which are received into the circuit 28B asV_(in) and V_(ref), respectively.

Two inverters 24A and 24B are coupled to the clock input clk_(i). Theseinverters produce clock, clk_(i##), a clock with a small delay relativeto the clock clk_(i). The clock clk_(i##) is used to clock the circuit28B. Again, the clock input clk_(i##) to the circuit 28B variesaccording to the relevant sampler circuit in which the circuit resides(i.e., clk_(30A##) for sampler 30A, clk_(30B##) for sampler 30B, etc.).The circuit 28B produces two complementary output signals, out_(28B1)and out_(28B2), which are received into inverters 24D and 24C,respectively. The inverted out_(28B1) and out_(28B2) signals are thenfed into a flip-flop 36, resulting in signals out_(i#) and out_(i),respectively, where i is one of the sampler designations (e.g., 30A).Thus, for sampler 30A, the complementary outputs out_(30A) andout_(30A#) are produced. The output out_(30A) is fed into thecombinational logic 18 (FIG. 1).

As shown in FIG. 3, the first stage (circuit 28A) is triggered by theclock input (clk_(i)) and the second stage (circuit 28B) is triggeredtwo inverter delays (24A and 24B) later by the clock input (clk_(i#)).The result of the sampling is captured by the flip-flop 26, as thecomplementary out_(i#) and out_(i) signals.

FIGS. 4, 5, and 6 depict implementations of the sampling circuit 28A,the sampling circuit 28B, and the flip-flop 36, respectively, accordingto some embodiments. Looking at FIGS. 4 and 5 together, the samplingcircuits 28A and 28B are complementary, and include both p-type metaloxide semiconductor (PMOS) and n-type MOS (NMOS) transistors. Thesampling circuit 28A (FIG. 4) includes two PMOS transistors, 52A and52B, and three NMOS transistors 54A, 54B, and 54C. The sampling circuit28B (FIG. 5) also includes two PMOS transistors, 52C and 52D, and threeNMOS transistors 54D, 54E, and 54F.

The NMOS transistor 54A is controlled by the clock signal clk_(i) (FIG.4) while the NMOS transistor 54D is controlled by the delayed clocksignal clk_(i##) (FIG. 5). The transistors 54A and 54D reset therespective sampling circuits 28A and 28B before the sampling occurs.

In the sampling circuit 28A (FIG. 4), V_(in) is tied to the gate of NMOStransistor 54B while V_(ref) is tied to the gate of NMOS transistor 54C.V_(dd) (which is sampling voltage V_(samp)—see FIGS. 2 and 3) is tied tothe sources of the PMOS transistors 52A and 52B. The PMOS transistors52A and 52B are cross-coupled; that is, the input of one is connected tothe output of the other, and vice-versa.

The sampling circuit 28B samples the outputs from the circuit 28A. Inthe sampling circuit 28B (FIG. 5), V_(in) (output out_(28A1) from thesampling circuit 28A) is tied to the gate of the PMOS transistor 52Cwhile V_(ref) (output out_(28A2) from the sampling circuit 28A) is tiedto the gate of the PMOS transistor 52D. V_(dd) (V_(samp)) is tied to thesources of the PMOS transistors 52C and 52D. The drains of the PMOStransistor 52C and the NMOS transistor 54E are tied to the output out₁;the drains of the PMOS transistor 52D and the NMOS transistor 54F aretied to the output out₂. The NMOS transistors 54E and 54F arecross-coupled; the input of one is connected to the output of the other,and vice-versa. In some embodiments, the sampling window is about 30 ps.

Referring back to FIG. 3, the results of the sequentially arrangedsampling circuits 28A and 28B are fed into the inverters 24C and 24D,the output of which are then fed into the flip-flop 36. Animplementation of the flip-flop 36 is depicted in FIG. 6, according tosome embodiments. Flip-flop or master-slave latches are well-known logiccircuits; system designers of ordinary skill in the art will recognizethat the flip-flop 36 may be replaced by any of a number of latchcircuits. The flip-flop 36 is used to capture the output of the secondsampling stage. The output of the sampling stage is a differentialsignal (out_(28B1) and out_(28B2)); likewise, the output of theflip-flop 36 (q# and q) is a differential signal (out_(i#) and out_(i)).The flip-flop 36 includes pass-gate circuits 72A, 72B, 72C, and 72D andinverters 24E, 24F, 24G, 24H, 24J, 24M, 24N, 24P, 24Q, and 24R.

Returning to FIG. 3, once the flip-flop 36 produces the output(out_(i#), out_(i)), the output outs, along outputs from the n samplers(FIG. 2). Thus, where the 0^(th) droop detector 10 in FIG. 2 includesfour samplers, outputs out_(30A), out_(30B), out_(30C), and out_(30D),or four outputs, are generated. These four outputs from one of the0^(th) droop detectors (say, the a droop detector) are then fed into thecombinational logic circuit 18 (FIG. 1), along with four outputs fromthe from the other 0^(th) droop detector (say, the β droop detector).Recall that the combinational logic circuit 18 isolates 0^(th) droopevents by identifying sampled outputs stored in the FIFO 12 that werespecified by the a droop detector as droop events but not specified bythe β droop detector as droop events. As shown in FIG. 1, thecombinational logic circuit 18 generates the 0^(th) droop event 20A,1^(st) droop event 20B, and non-droop event 20C as outputs. The FIFO 12may be large enough to hold multiple droop events, for later processing.

The FIFO 12 thus may store a continuous record of sampling informationfrom the droop detectors 10. The FIFO 12 may be part of the voltagedroop detector 100 or may be a separate device connectable directly tothe combinational logic 18. Where the voltage droop detector 100continuously samples the power grid of a load, such as a microprocessor,the FIFO 12 stores a record of the status of each sampling during eachcycle of the reference clock 16, including 0^(th) droop events. Thisinformation may be compared to other stored information about the loadoperation, such as CPU cycles for a microprocessor, in order toascertain the source of the 0^(th) droop event. The information storedin the FIFO 12 may be retained indefinitely.

In FIG. 7, a timing diagram showing the results of the 0^(th) droopdetector 10A (the a droop detector) of FIG. 1 in the presence of a 30 mVdroop event on a 1.1V supply. The following identifying features aredenoted: sampling clocks 62, droop event 66, sampler switching 68, andflip-flop capture of the event 70. A droop reference voltage 64 is setto 15 mV below 1.1V. The sampling clock 62 is actually two clocks,clk_(i) and clk_(i##), with a slight time delay between the two, asdescribed above. The droop event 66 is very short, 30 mV in amplitudeand 20 ps in duration. The output of the sampler switching in theopposite direction than in absence of droop 68 are two complementarytraces. One trace is the output from the sampler (out_(i)) and the othertrace is its complement (out_(i#)). As indicated by the arrow 68, thepreviously low-going trace is going up while the previously high-goingtrace is going down. The droop event 66 is captured by the samplergenerating the output signal 68, itself captured by the flip-flop 12, asshown by the flip-flop output signal 70, which holds the captured statefor one full clock period.

Compared to droop detectors available in the prior art, the voltagedroop detector 100 offers performances up to fifty times faster in termsof droop bandwidth detection, according to some embodiments. Eachsampler 30 in the 0^(th) droop detector 10 has a sampling window that islonger than the droop event itself (for a typical 0^(th) droop event).In contrast, prior art droop detectors are based on asynchronous analogsolutions which compare, in continuous time, the droop observed on thepower grid to a reference droop voltage and amplifying this differenceuntil it becomes large enough to trigger an event detector. Such priorart droop detectors rely on asynchronous differential operationalamplifier structures, and are limited by the bandwidth of thedifferential amplifier (i.e. a few GHz at most). The limited bandwidthmeans that these droop detectors are capable of detecting a 1^(st)droop, at best.

Advantageously, the voltage droop detector 100 overcomes the concernthat the monitored droop event is unpredictable by guaranteeing that thepower grid of the load is sampled continuously and systematically, asdescribed above, ensuring that one of the samplers 30 captures the droopevent. In some embodiments, the number of samplers 30 used in each0^(th) droop detector 10 (α or β) is proportional to the frequency ofthe reference clock used (clock 16 in FIG. 1) and to the duration of thesampling window. Preferably, the delay between the triggering of twosamplers 30 (Δt) is equivalent to the sampling window of the samplers30. In some embodiments, the number of samplers 30 is at least equal tothe period of the reference clock (clock 16) divided by the samplingwindow (which is equal to the delay element Δt, in some embodiments).One way to guarantee that the clock period matches the number ofsamplers 30 multiplied by the delay Δt between two samplers 30 is togenerate the clock directly from the chaining of the delay elements 22(FIG. 2).

The fact that the voltage droop detector 100 potentially determines thata voltage droop event has happened after the droop event has ended isnot a cause for concern. The outputs of the samplers 30 are storeddigitally in the FIFO 12 and are available for examination a posteriori.Thus, a second advantage of the voltage droop detector 100 over theprior art is its ability to indefinitely store historical informationabout droop events to the load.

The historical information is available in digital format and is thusavailable for analysis at any time. The information in the FIFO 12 maybe exploited to look for a specific type of event. For example, thesampling of the voltage droop detector 100 may be interrupted when aspecific droop profile has been stored in the FIFO 12.

For a microprocessor loads in particular, because the voltage droop onthe power grid directly affects its performance, being able to monitorthe 0^(th) droop event, 1^(st) droop event, and so on, as accurately aspossible provides a system designer the ability to address theconsequent problems resulting from the droop events. Circuits whichcompensate for the effect of power grid resonance and 1^(st) droopevents are currently available. Such circuits may be modified tocompensate for 0^(th) droop events as well. An accurate record of thedroop event will enable such circuits to be effective. The voltage droopdetector 100 described above is capable of providing such accuraterecords.

In FIG. 8, a system 200 for implementing the voltage droop detector 100of FIG. 1 is depicted, according to some embodiments. The system 200generally comprises a microprocessor 102 coupled to the voltage droopdetector 100, a wireless interface 104, a power supply 106, and a memory108. The microprocessor 102 is coupled to the voltage droop detector100, power supply 106, wireless interface 104 and memory 108 usingseparate point-to-point links. (Alternatively, the microprocessor 102may be coupled to the devices via a bus interface.) The wirelessinterface 104, which includes an antenna, couples the microprocessor 102to a client or to a network. The power supply 106 supplies power to themicroprocessor 102 during operation of the system 200. The voltage droopdetector 100 detects 0^(th) droop, 1^(st) droop, and non-droop eventsoccurring due to changes in the microprocessor load, as discussedherein. Droop and non-droop events obtained during voltage sampling mayperiodically be stored in the memory 108, as described above, forsubsequent analysis.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited numberof embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate numerousmodifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that the appendedclaims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within thetrue spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A circuit, comprising: a first detector to sample a first voltagefrom a load, wherein the first detector produces a first detectorsignal; and a second detector to sample a second voltage from the load,where in the second voltage results from the first voltage beingmodified by a filter, the second detector producing a second detectorsignal; wherein a 0^(th) droop event is indicated in response to thefirst detector signal identifying a droop event and the second detectorsignal identifying a non-droop event.
 2. The circuit of claim 1, furthercomprising: combinatorial logic to receive the first detector signal andthe second detector signal, wherein the combinatorial logic identifiesthe 0^(th) droop event.
 3. The circuit of claim 1, further comprising: amemory buffer to store the first signal and the second signal such thatthe signals are stored for later analysis.
 4. The circuit of claim 2,wherein the memory buffer is a first-in-first-out circuit.
 5. Thecircuit of claim 1, further comprising: a reference clock, the referenceclock being used by both the first detector and the second detector. 6.The circuit of claim 4, the first detector further comprising: a numberof sampler circuits, each sampler circuit receiving a sampling voltageand a reference voltage; and a second number of delay circuits, thesecond number being one less than the number, wherein the delay circuitsare disposed in the voltage droop detector such that each of the samplercircuits receives a different clock input.
 7. The circuit of claim 5,wherein the sampling voltage to the first detector is the first voltage.8. The circuit of claim 5, the second detector being an equivalentcircuit to the first detector, wherein the sampling voltage to thesecond detector is the second voltage.
 9. The circuit of claim 5, eachof the number of sampler circuits further comprising: a first circuitcomprising a plurality of transistors, wherein the first circuitreceives the sampling voltage and the reference voltage and produces afirst output and a second output; a second circuit comprising a secondplurality of transistors, wherein the second circuit receives the firstoutput and the second output and produces a third output and a fourthoutput; and a flip-flop comprising a plurality of inverters andpass-gate circuits, wherein the flip-flop receives an inverted thirdoutput and an inverted fourth output and produces a fifth output and asixth output.
 10. The circuit of claim 8, wherein the first plurality oftransistors and the second plurality of transistors each comprise twop-type metal oxide semiconductor transistors and three n-type metaloxide semiconductor transistors.
 11. The circuit of claim 5, whereineach of the sampler circuits is processed in a first time period andeach of the delay circuits is processed in a second time period, whereinthe first time period is substantially similar to the second timeperiod.
 12. A method, comprising: sampling a first voltage, the firstvoltage sampling taking place according to a reference clock; sampling asecond voltage, the second voltage sampling taking place according tothe reference clock, the second voltage being a filtered version of thefirst voltage; and identifying a 0^(th) voltage droop when the firstvoltage sampling identifies a droop but the second voltage sampling doesnot identify a droop.
 13. The method of claim 12, sampling a firstvoltage according to a reference clock further comprising: comparing thefirst voltage to a reference voltage a first time, the first time beingin reference to the reference clock; comparing the first voltage to thereference voltage a second time, the second time being in reference tothe reference clock plus a time delay; and comparing the first voltageto the reference voltage one or more additional times, the one or moreadditional times being in reference to the reference clock plus amultiple of the time delay, where in the multiple equals the time numberminus one.
 14. The method of claim 12, further comprising: storinginformation from the first voltage sampling and the second voltagesampling, wherein the information comprises both droop information andnon-droop information.
 15. The method of claim 14, storing informationfrom the first voltage sampling and the second voltage sampling furthercomprising: saving a digital representation of the information in amemory device.
 16. The method of claim 14, further comprising: analyzingthe information after the 0^(th) voltage droop has occurred.
 17. Themethod of claim 15, saving a digital representation of the informationin a memory device further comprising: saving the digital representationin a first-in-first-out circuit.
 18. A system, comprising: amicroprocessor coupled to a voltage droop detector, the voltage droopdetector being capable of identifying 0^(th) droop events; and awireless interface including an antenna communicatively linked to themicroprocessor, wherein the wireless interface communicatively links themicroprocessor to a network.
 19. The system of claim 18, wherein thevoltage droop detector further comprises: a first detector to sample afirst voltage from the microprocessor, wherein the first detectorproduces a first detector signal; and a second detector to sample asecond voltage from the microprocessor, where in the second voltageresults from the first voltage being modified by a filter, the seconddetector producing a second detector signal; wherein a 0^(th) droopevent is indicated in response to the first detector signal identifyinga droop event and the second detector signal identifying a non-droopevent.
 20. The system of claim 19, further comprising: a memory buffercoupled to the microprocessor, the memory buffer to store droop eventsand non-droop events identified by the voltage droop detector.